2 Plugins that Target New Readers

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Have you ever been to a new department store before? You’re not familiar with the place, and the friendly staff is there to help you find your way. That’s nice.

20 visits later, that same staff gets on your nerves. The extra help has turned into extra irritation; he keeps greeting you the same way, stands near you as you’re browsing around, and keeps giving you a recommendation, clearly showing that he can’t remember who you are. You’re forgetable. That gets to you, more than the shopping experience itself.

Sites which offer great content can sometimes be like that department store. I’m talking about popups (often used to call the reader to subscribe to the newsletter). These popups can be effective in increasing site subscription, but after that, it can also turn off readership experience during subsequent visits. Your reader has subscribed, and yet he keeps seeing the same “Hello, thank you. Please subscribe. Here’s why…”, followed by a few lines of ridiculous claims that every other site can do too.

So the trick is to make these notifications targeted to new readers, cause these are whom these popups are supposed to be for in the first place right? Seth Godin says…

One opportunity that’s underused is the idea of using cookies to treat returning visitors differently than newbies. It’s more work at first, but it can offer two experiences to two different sorts of people. (Source: In the Middle, Starting)

Here are two WordPress plugins I recommend to offer that added differentiated service:

1. What Would Seth Godin Do Wordpress Plugin: - allows you to add a customized header at the beginning of your page. New visitors will see a different message (customizable) from regular readers.
2. Wordpress Popup Scheduler Plugin: - makes popups less annoying. You can set the popup (for subscription or special announcements) to appear only for new users at the specific page which they visit your site (landing page)

The “What Would Seth Godin Do” plugin is a gem because you can also set a custom message for returning visitors (e.g. “Welcome back”).

Do you have your own favorite plugins that do targeting? Share them here.

How to Display Targeted Google Ads

Displaying ads that are relevant and targeted to your target audience is advantageous because

1. Targeted ads can be perceived as extra service instead of spam
2. Targeted ads are relevant, which increases the probability of ad effectiveness
3. Targeted ads can add more relevant content to your product and hence, build product credibility

Google Adsense is one of the most common ways to monetize your blog. They come in the form of text links or banner ads. The contents of these ads are controlled by the the Google Adsense algorithm which spiders your site for the most commonly used words and phrases, using this logic to decide what to display.

To display ads from Google Adsense that are relevant to your audience, the secret is in your blog itself. The more targeted your blog is, the more focused your writing becomes. This results in certain keywords which are closely related to each other to be used more frequently by you in a natural manner, allowing the Google Adsense system to make better guesses on what your website is about, and hence what ads should be displayed.

The more focused and niche your blog is, the more relevant your Adsense Ads. When your ads are relevant and matter to your reader, the better the reading experience and the higher the probability of earning from your monetized blog.